Author: AEFJN

The Conference or Workshop on Land Grabbing in Francophone Africa was held in Abidjan from 21 to 23 November 2017. Its tasks were to identify where land grabbing was happening and to promote endogenous solutions to overcome it. This workshop followed the one held in Kenya in 2015. The participation was massive, with several JPIC groups, NGOs and partners …. and the presence of the Bishops of West and Central Africa. Mgr. TOUABLI, 2nd Vice-President of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa, Mgr. UGORJI, President of RECOWA’s Justice and Peace Commission, and Msgr. SPITERI, Apostolic Nuncio in Côte...

The German Federal Government did not show much interest in African affairs in the period after World War II and preferred to leave Africa to the French and the English who had much closer connections to their former colonies. One exception was Horst Köhler. As President of the Republic, he frequently traveled to Africa, brought Africa‘s concerns to the attention of the German public. He will always be remembered for his statement: for a new relationship between Europe and Africa “on equal level”. The government used his rhetoric but did not take up his concerns. What motivate the new...

Following the Limuru-Nairobi, Continental African Conference on land grabbing in November 2015, AEFJN co-organised a follow-up Conference for the Francophone countries of Africa in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire, from November 21-23, 2017. You may recall that similar follow-up conferences have taken place in Mozambique for the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) countries and in a number of Anglophone countries namely: Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania focusing on more specific faces of land grabbing. AEFJN co-organised and/or participated in some of these follow-up conferenceThe Conferences were geared towards bringing the Church, Civil Society and Social Movement actors in Africa to work together in responding...

One of the highest-profile debates this autumn in European circles concerns glyphosate-based pesticides. The European Commission (EC) met with strong opposition from the European Parliament when it proposed to renew the license for glyphosate-based weed killers for 10 years, (initially the ask was 15 years). The European Parliament (EP) proposes to phase-out its use based on public health and environmental concerns. The EP calls on the EC to respect the precautionary principle, invoking the difference of opinion between the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the European Food Safety Authority related to the carcinogenic risk of these weeds...

During its first years of operation, the Kimberley process (KP) was considered a trailblazer as a multi-stakeholder processes. However, its merits have dwindled on nearly all fronts: it is failing both to meet its own mandate – to keep blood diamonds off women’s fingers – and to deal with emerging threats and vulnerabilities linked to diamond governance. The calls from a rising tide of NGOs are strong: the KP is failing – it should be brought in line with international standards in resource governance, in particular the OECD Due Diligence Guidance. Whilst the KP restricts itself to “conflict diamonds”...